The whites of their eyes: The evolution of the distinctive sclera in humans

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Bickham, Joanna. 2008. The whites of their eyes: The evolution of the distinctive sclera in humans. -- Lambda Alpha Journal, v.38, p.20-29

Abstract

Two major studies which are explored in this paper concern the comparative morphology
of a wide range of primates, how these differences affect behavior, and
what inferences one can make regarding the adaptive reasons behind those differences.
Hiromi Kobayashi and Shiro Kohshima conducted a study in 1998 that
measured the eyes of 88 species of primates using computer-aided image analysis
to determine the differences between species and to examine how these differences
correlate with biological and environmental variability (Kobayashi & Kohshima
2001). Michael Tomasello and associates have carried out numerous studies using
apes, monkeys, and children that explore issues relating to cognition and communication;
this body of work is integrated into the “cooperative eye hypothesis,”
which will be explored in the body of this paper (Tomasello et al. 2007:316).